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canoe.ca
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
by Ross Romaniuk, City Hall Reporter
A recreational park is expected to take shape on
the banks of the Seine River through a deal to preserve more than
60 acres of St. Vital property from development. Non-profit group
Save Our Seine River Environment Inc. is trumpeting the agreement
between governments and a development firm to save the so-called
"Bois des Esprits" land from a housing project -- a move expected
to keep the urban wilderness unharmed and accessible to the public.
"It will be used as a city park. There are already
a number of trails running through both sides of the Seine," New
Democrat MLA Christine Melnick (Riel) told The Sun. "The vision
is that it will become a recreational area."
The agreement will see the province and city provide
a total of $150,000 to help Save Our Seine (SOS) secure most of
the Bois des Esprits property, with Manitoba Housing Renewal Corp.
reducing its equity in a land partnership with developer Ladco
Co. Ltd., said Coun. Dan Vandal.
The governments' efforts, combined with money that
SOS has raised on its own, gives the environmental organization
about $300,000 for the purchase, Vandal added.
"The province is just lessening the amount of profit
it's getting from the development, and contributing back in the
way of forest, which will be owned by the City of Winnipeg," said
the St. Boniface councillor.
"It will be used by citizens as public parkland."
The Seine River tract was the subject of a controversy
more than a year ago when SOS bickered with the governments and
Ladco over a bridge that the developer needed to provide vehicular
access to a second phase of its large Royalwood housing project.
The city had previously earmarked $1 million to buy about 60 acres
of what Vandal calls "A-quality habitat" along the Seine.
Ladco president Alan Borger said the new agreement
will save more than 80% of a 90-acre parcel of "natural vegetation,"
though the aim of the joint venture is to keep the land "in its
natural state with limited pathway development."
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